Breaking News: Just as I had published this, I heard of the sudden passing of yet another music icon Chris Cornell. My heartfelt condolences to his family and loved ones. You will be missed Chris!

Update II: Chris Cornell’s death has been reported to be suicide. Damn, such a waste of talent. Whatever was troubling him, I hope he is at peace now. RIP.

Here’s a little Throwback Thursday to ponder on…

Just recently music fans paused to remember the first anniversary of the death of music icon Prince who died on April 21, 2016 of an apparently accidental overdose.

Music is my other lesser known passion and as a person whose childhood and adolescence were rooted in the 80’s, Prince was a huge musical presence in my world.

Just like folks who grew up hearing of Sinatra, or the folks who grew up on the Beatles or Elvis, I grew up hearing the name of Prince, Michael Jackson, Madonna and Bruce Springsteen, just to name a few.

PAISLEY PARK

So what does Prince have to do with cameras or G.A.S. (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) ? Not sure if Prince was into cameras as there are precious few photos of him actually holding a camera. The only ones I saw were of Prince holding a Nikon. As you know, Prince was almost always in front of the camera being one of the most famous people on the planet.

I actually thought about this article over a year ago, at the time of his passing. What sparked it was seeing reports on television, after his death, which showed the inside of his huge Paisley Park compound. Within these walls were a very large and incredible music studio. This studio must have been filled with everything imaginable for perfect recordings. There were stages where he would put on shows for friends or fans he invited in. Film production studios. Just to name a few things known to be in this once (and still) mysterious building.

Also in his posession were an awesome collection of unique guitars, wardrobes, and I’m sure lots more.

So once again, what does this have to do with me or cameras? Well, it really got me thinking. Just like many of you, I have ravenously bought, sold, and collected some really awesome cameras and lenses through the years.

When money was good, I went through it like there was no tomorrow, most of it spent of whatever photographic gear I was chasing at the time. I did this until I went flat broke and had to sell them off. Then when times were good again, pattern repeat. When times got bad again, pattern repeat again.

“The Camera Legend Lair” Just a sampling of the cameras and lenses that have come through the lair! Rumor has it that there is a secret vault with even more goodies 🙂

Sure there are lots of famous (and not so famous) people with expensive houses and lots of expensive toys and possessions. But what struck me about Paisley Park and why I’m using it as an example is because Paisley Park was built for, and around a singular individual and that was individual was Prince. Once he was gone, it’s hard to imagine the feeling of emptiness that must’ve been felt in that building. The spirit of that building died with him.

WHAT THE DEATH OF PRINCE TAUGHT ME

When I heard the news that Prince had died, it seemed surreal. How could this seemingly healthy, larger than life figure, only 57, be gone in a flash? Sure, we now know the official cause of death was apparently from a self inflicted, accidental overdose of a powerful prescription drug. That does not matter now. I see life as unpredictable. Anything can happen at any time. Accidents, crime, a deadly disease, natural disasters. Anything can take us out in the blink of an eye.

When Prince died he left all those posessions behind and without a will, he left a bit of a mess for his family and lawyers to figure out.

Prince’s death reminded me that one day there will indeed be no tomorrow. I had been thinking about my own mortality a lot since my Dad’s passing in 2011 and now even more so as I continue to grow older by the day. Prince’s passing just once again proves that old adage…”You can’t take it with you when you’re gone.” Except for his musical brilliance. He took that with him and it will be a long time before we see another one who has that combination of musical genius, charisma, and showmanship again.

Sure, he may have (in my opinion) taken the look from Little Richard, the funk from James Brown, and even some showmanship from Elvis, but he put it together in one package and backed it up with musical ability. While Michael Jackson may have been the “bigger” of the two stars, Prince actually wrote, played, and produced most of his music himself while Michael mostly had songs chosen for him and top musicians playing for him, not to mention Quincy Jones producing for him.

As for G.A.S. I’m in no way saying that Prince had G.A.S. and I do feel he had the power, the means, and the right to do whatever he wanted with his money. But we can look at this in two ways…

One. You could say he lived his life to the fullest. I’ve heard it said somewhere that it’s not how many years one lived, but how he/she lived those years. If so, you can certainly say Prince lived a full life and did everything and more than most people ever will in his 57 years than most people could, even if they lived to 100 years old.

Or two, we need to think more about the fact that one day we will all die. We should do our best to make our decisions based on this fact, be conservative and save our money for our children and for their future.

For me personally, it’s a little bit of both. One, I feel that life is to live. Since as far as I can tell, we only have one life, we should live it to the fullest. Then again I do have a family, and God forbid, I could drop tomorrow and my family wouldn’t have a clue what to do with the mess I left behind.

Sadly (or maybe not, depending on) Prince did not have any living children to think about, which may have given him additional “freedom” to use his money in whichever way he wanted. But if you do have kids or close family, then you should probably take them into consideration when you ponder on your next photographic splurge. Is that $6000 Leica M or $5000 pro Nikon or Canon really worth it?

Now if you had your heart set on buying some new expensive gear, don’t let me bring you down. I’m a sinner, so I’m not one to preach. Go ahead and buy that Monochrom or Nikon D5 or whatever strikes your fancy! I’m just expressing how I feel about it now. Fellow gear hounds and hoarders, I’d love to hear how you feel about this!

A few postings back I showed a color image from the Leica M8 and said that with some post processing and treatment, I could maybe, possibly turn the photo into something more dramatic. Well, I had some time to play with it and here’s the before and after:

Now I know it may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I think it’s certainly more “dramatic” than the first photo!

Ok the color shot on top was a straight out of camera jpeg from the M8 with a 50mm f/2 Summicron attached. The bottom b&w image is the same image processed through Google’s Analog Efex using a wet plate filter. It’s basically a digital filter attempting to emulate the look of a wet plate film print.

Seeing the image from a photographer’s perspective, I would certainly choose the “Plain Jane” straight out of camera color shot, but I do have to say that I did like the b&w conversion too. But that’s probably me being partial to the subjects 🙂

Anyway, it got me thinking this…if this image was a true wet plate photo, I’d wager that most photographers, even analog only photographers would accept it, maybe even think it was cool with all its grit and drama.

But since it’s a digital manipulation, they’d probably dismiss it. I can understand this. First of all, a true wet plate print requires a lot of work and people can respect the process. And most will give your props for that. Digital manipulation, digital filters, etc, are much easier in comparison.

Digital photography “purists” may not accept it either as using filters seem “fake” and especially now when people are on the “no filter” wave. Technology has made life easy, but people still seem to prefer hard.

So you get no respect from analog photographers and no respect from digital photography “purists.” So who would be the audience for this kind of digital manipulation? Why I’d bet my money on social media! Your friends on Facebook, Instagram, etc. I think images using these filters would be perfect for social media.

Why? You might think I’d say that the audience there don’t know any better, but I’m not saying that. Being on social media for many years, I can honestly say that while there are a lot of non photographers posting photos, there are also many, many hardcore photographers posting there as well. And many of these folks are very knowledgeable and would know that the photo has received some kind of “artificial” treatment.

The wonderful thing about social media though vs the photo forums is a general sense of acceptance for almost anything. The folks tend to view images on a broader scope, accepting the image as it is first. The process too sometimes helps to get the votes, the likes, etc, but if you didn’t mention it, they probably wouldn’t care and they’d probably accept it as is. But we photo geeks care about the process, don’t we? 🙂

On the negative side, there’s also a drive for votes and likes, so your followers will likely “like” your image anyway, whether they really like it or not.

Please understand, I am just using this image as an example, not because I think it’s a great photo or not. I love the photo because of the subjects, but I’d honestly say that to the general public it’s probably not a very interesting shot, even processed.

If it were me looking at this from an outsider’s eye, I would say there’s no way this is a real wet plate photo. Real wet plate photos are rarely ever this clean nor this sharp, though I have seen some sharp ones. They do tend to be dark, and the Analog Efex did a good job there.

In the end though, it has always been my belief that digital b&w started out of a desire to emulate film. As things evolved, it was no longer just about film but about achieving a look that is unique and different from everyone else. The incredibly high saturation of photographers in today’s world drives this desire even more.

All I can say is…

If you shoot film, continue to shoot it. You will always be a little different in today’s world and part of a wonderfully amazing and passionate brotherhood. But film can only take you so far in and of itself. Content is most important.

Content to me is subject, composition, and the overall “interesting-ness” of the photo. Technical quality is usually second. You can have a technically perfect photo that’s boring as hell and not many people will like it.

If you shoot digital, that’s awesome too but try to make your mark by content first. Again content is key. Interesting photos will always win over filters. And if you want to use filters, I have nothing against that. Just know that filters get old pretty fast so use them sparingly.

There is room for everybody and every style in the wonderful world of photography so let’s not lose any sleep over this. As long as you’re having fun, I’d say that’s good enough for me and it should be good enough for you 🙂

Here’s a photo that I think best sums up the week. This is not meant to be a photo award winner nor is it a technical tour de force in any way. It’s just a photo that best sums up my week 🙂

Now it’s not my place to take sides or even talk about politics here on a site like Camera Legend, but ah what the heck…

It was amazing, though actually not surprising to see President Trump’s failed attempt to repeal and replace Obamacare, which is in no way perfect either. Health care is tough.

Again, it’s not my desire to take sides or get into any political debates. Just speaking for me, Republicans/Democrats, they’re pretty much the same to me. Just like the late great Lemmy once said…”You win some, you lose some, it’s all the same to me.”

They may have very different agendas, but in the end they all produce about the same crap, and a lot of it 🙂

The “closer,” the deal maker par excellence was not able to cut this deal. They tried to blame the Democrats, but that won’t fly with majority Republican control on the Hill. They actually pulled the bill because he didn’t even have enough Republican support! How about that? Personally, I think it was rushed and perhaps Ryan can be blamed for that, but when you’re President, the bottom line lies with you.

I think the President learned a very hard lesson this week and it is this…

No one can change how Washington D.C. is run. Many have tried, none have been able to get it done. Yes Virginia, there is a reason why you sometimes need to be a politician to make deals in Washington. I’m betting after four years the President will be a politician par excellence! Then what will happen? We’ll just have another politician in the White House, as it was always meant to be 🙂

***DEAL ALERT***

From time to time, our media affiliates will send us deals they have going on and since I do not want to burden you good people with advertisement, I decide whether or not to tell you about it. And believe me, the majority of the time I choose not to plug it, much the chagrin of our media friends 🙂

“Standing Strong” 2013. Fuji X-Pro 1, Canon 35mm f/1.8 ltm. I’ve used the Fuji X-Pro 1 for some time. It’s an outstanding camera with its native Fuji lenses, but is a pain to use with legacy manual lenses such as the Canon I used here. The Fuji X-T1 that I’m talking about in the article is a much better body for this purpose.

Just like you, I know no one likes it when you plug an ad or ask you to click a link, but you should know too writing and equipment reviews take a lot of time and cost money, most of which I spend on my own to give you the best info I can and I do this for free. No one ever sent me a piece of equipment to write about. But that’s ok, I love this thing, that’s why I do it and I can and will always remain objective.

If you buy anything through our links, I don’t get much, if at all, but every little bit adds to help this site grow. And it costs you nothing to do so. Especially if you’re planning to buy the stuff anyway, it’s a win-win.

Anyway, today we got a screaming deal!! Sometimes you get deals and sometimes you get duds. This is a real deal yes! Most of you will know that the Fuji X-T1 is an awesome and capable top end camera that produces amazing pics and it usually goes for $1299. For a limited time, you can now get it brand new for $799!! Ho! $500 off plus other savings through our partners. If you ever wanted to get the Fuji X-T1, this is it. Check out this and other Fuji Deals and if you do get one, drop back here and let me know how you liked it. I bet you’ll love it! Thank you very much, I appreciate your support.